Stoplight
by Kurisuten-chan
Summary: AU. Welcome to Hetalia Academy for the Performing Arts. Arthur's just met the most annoying American trumpet player. Feliciano has a crush on the German violinist who sits next to him. And Gilbert's going to prove to the world that the flute is manly.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Hetalia – Axis Powers. I also do not own any of the music mentioned in this Fanfiction (Green Day own "American Idiot"). Lastly, the school is based slightly off of Interlochen Center for the Arts – specifically the Interlochen Arts Academy.

**Pairings: **USUK, PruCan, GerIta, Spamano, SuFin, DenNor, and maybe others.

**Author's Note:** Various musical terms will also be popping up, so I'll be giving some definitions scattered throughout. I don't mean to offend anyone's musical knowledge, but I'm going to pretend you know nothing (well, maybe not _nothing_, just not very much), just so everyone can understand, even if they have absolutely no knowledge of classical music.

* * *

><p><strong>[A Hetalia – Axis Powers Fanfiction]<strong>

**-Stoplight-**

* * *

><p>"Don't wanna be an American idiot! Na na na na, na na, na na na ~ !"<p>

"A little late for that," Arthur muttered, glaring at the stoplight across the street from him, willing it to change color quickly.

His comment went unnoticed by the teen next to him, who continued to deafen himself with his obnoxiously loud iPod. The blonde's lips perked up into a grin as he hurried across the street. Well, at least he wouldn't have to hear any of that crap for the rest of the day – at least. He gripped the two black cases he was holding a little more tightly.

Arthur sped up as the sign came into view: Hetalia Academy for the Performing Arts. This was it! Hetalia was one of the best – if not _the_ best – high school for the performing arts. He'd been playing the oboe since he was nine years old, and had completely fallen in love with it. When his older brother Daniel had been accepted he'd begged and begged his mum to let him go too. Next year his second oldest brother, Jack, was accepted, which only strengthened Arthur's resolve. Then, his third brother, Ryan, left for Hetalia and Arthur could barely contain himself. And finally he was here!

The Brit pushed open the glass doors, stepping into the linoleum hallways, peering into the glass cases with pictures of various alumni, concerts, and productions. As he walked further down the hallway, Arthur began to feel a little nervous. He'd had his placement tryout the day before after settling into the small condo his brothers shared a few blocks away from the school.

Arthur's hands began to sweat slightly. He was confidant that he was a good oboe player, but was his "good" enough in a school where everyone else had worked just as hard, if not harder, than him? Ryan played the violin and had been placed pretty highly in the orchestra, and so had Daniel – in the viola section at least. Jack wasn't as good as Daniel at the viola, and was placed near the back of the second viola section, but Jack was also studying the bagpipes, and had gotten pretty good.

The blonde paused outside of the registration office, and glanced at his oboe case, then at his English horn case. He sighed and put his hand on the door to push it open – only to stumble forward as someone opened it from the inside.

Arthur saw a flash of blonde with a stray cowlick sticking up at an impossible angle, and a pair of shiny, electric blue headphones.

"Don't wanna be an American idiot! One nation controlled by the media ~ "

* * *

><p>Gilbert blearily stared at his alarm clock. Which currently read 7:45 am. His red eyes widened as his mind finally processed that information.<p>

"Scheiße!" he yelled, scrambling out of bed and quickly pulling on his clothes.

The sliver haired teen vaguely remembered hearing his younger brother telling him to wake up sometime earlier that morning. He'd just needed five more minutes of sleep…

Gilbert stumbled into the small kitchenette, wolfing down the slightly cold toast his brother had left for him on the counter. He rushed down the block to the subway station, growling in frustration as he saw the backup of people pouring up out of the subway system. He tried to get through to what would have been the down escalator, had it been working (the escalators in the Washington DC subway system _never_ seemed to be working).

"You won't wanna go down there; they've closed down this stop," a man in a tan coat said to Gilbert, nodding to the backup of people. "Somebody jumped in front of the car and they're trying to fish out what's left of 'im."

"Gott verdammt!" Gilbert swore again, rushing back to his apartment.

What could he do now? It was too far to walk, and he didn't know the bus routes. Even if he did there were no stops nearby…

Gilbert growled again, a fist in his hair, his eyes scanning the small apartment. Before settling on his brother's bike…

* * *

><p>The silver haired teen plowed recklessly at full speed through the streets on his younger brother's bike, barely missing being hit by a passing car on more than one occasion. Streets and houses flashed by him as he continued to accelerate, his backpack bobbing about as he pedaled faster.<p>

Gilbert continued at full speed as he neared the crosswalk, hoping to catch the tail end of the now yellow light. Just as he was starting to cross the crosswalk, he saw a flash of movement on his right.

There was a loud thump along with a yell and a frightened squeak as Gilbert and whatever he had hit toppled to the ground.

"Fuck! Watch where you're going Dummkopf!" the German snapped as he ripped open his backpack to make sure its precious cargo wasn't damaged.

"I'm s-sorry, I – " the shorter blonde he'd run into stuttered.

Gilbert finally stopped inspecting his flute to look up at the other. He had light blonde hair and violet-lavender eyes with one flyaway curl bobbing in front of his face. He looked rather delicate and had a few tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, and Gilbert immediately felt sorry for yelling at him.

"Er, yeah. Well, just check before you jump out into the road next time. You may be hit by a car next time instead of the Awesome Me."

The boy looked slightly confused before his eyes widened and he immediately jumped back up.

"My bus!" he yelped, running forward again as the city bus across the street closed its doors.

"Hey! What did I just say about running into the street?" Gilbert yelled, grabbing onto the boy's arm to stop him form charging out into the traffic again.

"B-but I have to be at the Hetalia Academy for the Performing Arts in five minutes!" he exclaimed, struggling against the other's hold.

"Why didn't you say so?" Gilbert asked, a grin spreading over his face. "That's where I was headed! Here, as an apology for running over you in the process of saving you from certain death I'll give you a lift."

"Are you sure – " the blonde started, only to be cut off as the silver haired teen pulled him onto the bike.

"Hold on!" the German exclaimed, a maniacal grin on his face.

"But there's not enough room – "

The blonde cried out in shock as Gilbert resumed his break neck speed, holding onto the taller teen for dear life. Somewhere between five and ten minutes later they skidded to a halt.

"Here we are: Hetalia Academy! Told you the Awesome Me could get you there!" Gilbert laughed, still grinning.

The other boy stumbled off of the bike, collapsing to the ground, his eyes spinning.

"Now, what did you say your name was?" the silver haired teen asked, finally turning to survey the collapsed boy.

"M-Matthew W-Williams, eh…"

"Hah, Mattie then? Well, it's your lucky day, 'cause I am Gilbert Beilschmidt – the most Awesome person you'll ever meet!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Notes:<strong>_

_**Orchestra Placing/Seating:**__ Musicians are given different seats based on skill level. For example, the best violin is given the "first chair". The second best gets the "second chair". The same goes for all other instruments, barring percussion. However, in the string sections the first chair of the second section is at a higher level than, say, the fourth or fifth chair of the first section. The first vs. second part ranking isn't necessarily true for wind instruments, though. Also, if you didn't get it earlier in this note, there are different parts for each instrument, often separating out the melody, counter melody, and harmony. Normally for orchestral string arrangements there are only two parts. For wind instruments there are often anywhere from two to five parts per instrument section. _

_**English Horn:**__ Also known as the "cor anglais", it's a wind instrument closely related to and closely resembling the oboe. The fingering and playing technique is very similar to the oboe also, so it's basically just a long oboe pitched lower with a rounder end piece. If you'd like more info, just look it up on Wikipedia. _

_I'm not going to explain violins, violas, and oboes, because I suspect most people already know what they are. If you don't, then just look them up on Wikipedia or Google images or something. _

* * *

><p><strong>Translations:<strong>

(German)

"Scheiße" - Shit

"Gott verdammt!" - Roughly "God damn it"

"Dummkopf" - Dumb-head, dunce, idiot, etc.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Aaand cut! Hope you like it so far! Please tell me what you think of the notes (e.g. Should they be in the middle? At the end? Not at all? Etc.) and any other comments/reviews would be appreciated! I'll try to update soon (and make the next chapter longer than this measly little thing).

Oh, one last thing, is Mattie too OOC? Well, thanks for reading and (hopefully) reviewing!

Kuri


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia or any of the music used in this fic. Hetalia Academy for the Performing Arts is also based off of Interlochen Center for the Arts – specifically the Interlochen Arts Academy, and slightly off of New York's High School of Performing Arts (aka Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). I've been to Interlochen's summer program, so I'm fairly familiar with them, but I don't know a ton about LaGuardia – remember this is just _based_ on them.

**Pairings:** USUK, PruCan, GerIta, Spamano, SuFin, DenNor, LietPol, and maybe others.

**Author's Note:** H-hi. This chapter was meant t-to be updated s-sooner, but…someone broke into my car and stole my laptop, phone, iPod, a-and…MY FLUTE! My main inspiration for writing this fic! I've had that flute for _half my lifetime! HALF!_ And now the bastard who stole it is probably trying to sell it in some pawn shop somewhere. Did I mention that I have an orchestra concert in five days? They also stole my combined tuner/metronome. I bought it three days ago. Damn.

Well, also, various musical terms will also be popping up, so I'll be giving some definitions scattered throughout. I don't mean to offend anyone's musical knowledge, but I'm going to pretend you know nothing (well, maybe not _nothing_, just not very much), just so everyone can understand, even if they have absolutely know knowledge of classical music.

* * *

><p><strong>[A Hetalia – Axis Powers Fanfiction]<strong>

**-Stoplight-**

* * *

><p>Arthur was torn between ecstasy and horror. He was ecstatic because he'd been placed as the first chair oboist. He was horrified because that blonde ruffian with the iPod he'd seen at the stoplight was sitting in the row behind him. At the Hetalia Academy orientation. And his iPod was still playing. At lest he'd stopped singing.<p>

Arthur sighed as he looked around the room, glancing at his three brothers briefly (he'd made sure to sit as far away from them as possible). There were all sorts of people scattered about the hall, more trickling in every second. He ran his fingers gently over his oboe case again, smiling slightly.

When the clock struck eight and all the freshmen were seated, the director of the Academy, Romulus Decimus ("Who names their kid that?" the blonde behind Arthur asked, turning off his iPod.) began to address the crowd.

"We've admitted one hundred and fifty students today, and they all swear they have a special gift to offer the school," he began, a serious look on his face. "You're all the best of the best when it comes to the performing arts, be it music, theater, or dance. You may have been the best at your old school, but now you've got to step up your game. You're here to learn, but not just music and art. We also expect the best of you in your academic courses, too…"

Arthur listened intently as he continued on, practically committing the speech to memory. Behind him, however, iPod-boy was not so focused. The brighter haired blonde was fiddling with his iPod headphones, twisting the chords and running his fingers over the shiny blue surface and the "Skull Candy" logo, fidgeting in his seat all the while.

The Brit resisted the urge to snap at him, if only so he could hear all of the orientation speech.

"Do you have a special gift to offer the school?" Romulus finished.

Just as those words left his mouth, however, the doors at the back of the auditorium banged open, and two figures came striding in. Well, actually, one figure came striding in, the other was kind of…dragged.

Arthur did a double take as he caught sight of the second person, his eyes automatically flickering over to iPod-boy behind him, just to make sure he was still there, as his spitting image was pulled into the orientation hall.

"Late again, Gilbert?" Mister Decimus asked, trying to sound exasperated, but the edges of his lips twitched upwards, as if he was struggling to hide a smile. "Your younger brother is much more punctual."

The green eyed boy noticed a teen with slicked back, blonde hair sitting in the front row turn slightly red at this comment, fidgeting in his seat embarrassedly.

"Hey, the Awesome Me wouldn't be un-awesome-ly late without a good reason!" the taller of the entering figures retorted, a lopsided grin on his face. "Someone jumped in front of one of the subway cars at my stop, so I had to bike here, and then on the way I ran into Mattie here who'd missed his bus, and he said he was starting here today and so, being the awesome person I am, I gave him a lift."

Arthur wondered how literal "running into" the shorter boy was. Looking at this guy, probably very.

"Well, you'd better be off to class. I believe you have chamber music first this morning," Romulus sighed, a full blown smile on his face now. "Mister Williams, you can stay here. I'm afraid you've missed the orientation speech, but better late than never, I guess."

The older boy laughed slightly, said "See ya later, Mattie!" and then strolled out confidently. "Mattie" blushed brightly and quickly sat down in the back row, trying to be as invisible as possible. Arthur was almost certain he saw the blonde flicker for a second.

"Anyway, continuing on, you should have picked up a packet of papers when you checked in this morning. Inside are your schedule and a map of the school. This orientation has taken up your first period of the day, so you'll be heading off to your second period class now. If there are any questions, comments, concerns, etc. they can be directed to the office where you picked up your packet. Thank you all for coming, and welcome to Hetalia Academy for the Performing Arts!" he finished, smiling brightly.

The students clapped and then started standing up from the hard plastic chairs. Arthur got to his feet and pulled out his schedule from his packet.

"Music theory…" he muttered under his breath, his bright green eyes scanning over his schedule.

"Hey!" a voice off to his left yelled. "Dude with the insane eyebrows!"

Arthur twitched, but didn't turn around.

"Hey, so, I heard you say you had music theory first," iPod boy said, smiling brightly, so brightly, in fact, that Arthur was momentarily blinded by its brilliance. "I do too, but I had to give my map to a person in need, 'cause I'm a hero! Anyway, I'm kind of in need of a map now, and I figured 'cause we both have music theory first I could tag along with you! That okay?"

Again a blinding smile. Arthur wondered how iPod-boy had managed to hear his mutterings – he'd thought that the teen would have blasted his ears out already with the volume his iPod had been set at that morning.

_No, it's not okay._

"Sure," the green eyed boy answered, still twitching slightly.

"Great! I'm Alfred, by the way. Alfred F. Jones!" the taller teen interrupted.

Cue blinding smile.

"Arthur Kirkland," the Brit replied, what he hoped was a convincing smile plastered on his face (it felt like more of a grimace). "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

_Not._

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><p>"Veeee, isn't this great Romano? It's great, isn't it? Right, fratello?"<p>

Lovino resisted the urge to bang his head against a hard surface as his twin continued on aimlessly. How his fluff-for-brains brother had managed to be placed as the second chair violinist at Hetalia Academy he had no clue.

Actually, truth be told, Lovino had been rather surprised to find out that his younger brother had been placed second instead of first. Feliciano's teacher always went on and on about how amazing his brother's tone, technique, poise, etc. was. The older Italian was rather eager to meet the person who had bested his "perfect" brother; too bad he'd have to wait until sixth period to find out.

"So, what do we have first, Lovi?" Feliciano asked, his voice light and a carefree air about him.

"We have Math. Why can't you look at your own damn schedule?" the older twin snapped.

"Ve, but you already had yours out, fratello," the younger Italian replied, still as carefree as before.

"Well then get out the map, will you?" Lovino retorted, blushing slightly.

"Okay!" Feli exclaimed, fishing through his packet of paper and pulling out the map…and ten proceeding to hold it upside down.

Again, Lovino resisted the urge to bang his head against a hard surface, groaning at his younger brother's stupidity.

"Do you two need some help?" a kind voice asked from behind him. "You look a little lost."

"Mi dica! Thank you! We need to get to room 205," Feliciano replied, smiling brightly to whoever was behind his brother.

"Don't go talking to strangers, Feliciano!" the older twin chastised, turning around to look at the offending stranger, scrutinizing his messy brown hair, olive green eyes and tanned skin.

"Oh," the younger mumbled, looking a little downcast, before perking back up. "I'm Feliciano Vargas, and this is my brother Lovi!"

The stranger laughed slightly before answering.

"¡Hola! Nice to meet you. I'm Antonio Fernández Carrido," the other replied, mirroring the younger twin's bright smile. "Ahh, you two have such cute names!"

"My name's Lovino, not Lovi, bastard!" the older twin snapped, blushing brightly. "And my name is _not_ cute!"

The older student's smile widened in apparent amusement at the Italian's fierce denial. "How about I call you Tomate, then? You blush just like a ripe tomato!"

This only made the younger student turn a deeper shade of red and tremble slightly.

"Come on, Feli," Lovino growled, grabbing his twin's wrist and pulling his down the hallway away from Antonio.

"Fratello, don't be rude! We didn't say goodbye to Antonio!" Feliciano protested, pouting slightly.

"Ciao, tomato bastard!" Lovino called, not bothering to look back at the Spanish upperclassman. "There, happy?"

"Ciao, Antonio!" Feli said, waving back at the figure further back in the hallway. "See you soon!"

"Wait!" the older student yelled, running down the hallway towards the twins.

"What is it?" Feliciano asked, stopping and jerking his brother to a stop who was still holding onto his twin's wrist.

"I just thought you might want to know that you're going the wrong way," he said, laughing again. "Why don't I just show you to room 205?"

"No!" the older of the twins retorted, letting go of Feliciano's wrist, turning around and heading in the direction Antonio indicated. "I'll find it on my own."

He heard more of that annoying laugher from behind him.

"You might want to turn left!" Antonio's voice called out.

"I knew that, bastard!" Lovino yelled, backtracking and turning down the correct hallway.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Notes:<strong>_

_**Music Theory:**__ Reading music: key signature, time signature, definition of various notes (length, pitch, etc), terminology, etc. _

_**Orchestra Placing/Seating: **__Explained in chapter one notes._

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><p><strong>Translations:<strong>

(Italian)

"Fratello" – Brother

"Mi dica" – "Yes please" or "tell me please"

"Ciao" – Goodbye or hello (goodbye in this case)

(Spanish)

"¡Hola!" – Hello

"Tomate" – Tomato

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Yeah. So that's the next chapter. I'd appreciate it if you would now take a moment to mourn my stolen flute…I'll have to write Prussia being exceptionally awesome on the flute next chapter. Hope you liked this chapter and I hope to update soon! (The laptop I'm currently borrowing better not be stolen…*knocks on wood*). Thanks for reading and please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **Hetalia. Music. Not Mine. Sadly. Based off of Interlochen Arts Academy and New York's High School for the Performing Arts (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). Just based, though.

**Pairings:** USUK, GerIta, PruCan, DenNor, Spamano, SuFin, LietPol, and maybe others.

**Author's Note:** Hiya! My orchestra director's hair was very amusing a few days ago. When he gets frustrated, he runs his hands through his hair a lot, and apparently he'd had a pretty long day (we practice at around 19:00-21:00 (7:00-9:00 pm)) and so his hair was sticking up, but what was really amusing was that he had a cowlick that looked like Austria's! I was trying really hard not to totally freak out. It didn't help that he has brown hair, rectangular, wire rim glasses, and was conducting an orchestra. Sigh…

Lastly, music notes at the bottom – you know the drill.

* * *

><p><strong>[A Hetalia – Axis Powers Fanfiction]<strong>

**-Stoplight-**

* * *

><p>Arthur Kirkland was having a very long day. And it was only third period – he still had nine periods left! He just wanted to bang his head on a hard surface.<p>

"Wow, Artie! We have the _exact_ same schedules except that I'm taking Spanish and you're taking Italian and our Science and Math classes are switched around!"

Oh god, the horror. He could barely stand _one_ period with the loudmouth American, much less _eight_. Music Theory had, truthfully, started out okay. They listened to their teacher drone on about course expectations for the first half of the forty-five minute period, and then they were given a worksheet about identifying basic melodic and harmonic minor scales. Arthur had completed it easily and found himself staring at the clock, waiting for class to be over.

However, he was jolted from his idle thoughts by the annoying boy sitting next to him…who had yet to complete even a fourth of the worksheet. Alfred had spent the rest of class badgering Arthur for answers. According to him he "just played the music".

Arthur snorted softly at the memory – you couldn't "just play music". You needed to know the mechanisms and structure first.

" – I mean, why do we have to take it anyway? Music Theory is _boring_," Alfred whined, breaking the Brit from his thoughts.

"What do you mean it's boring, you bloody git?" the blonde with the large eyebrows snapped, rounding on the American.

"Well, it's kinda useless, don't you think?" the blue eyed boy replied, looking slightly confused. "I already know all the notes and stuff."

"_Useless? _Music Theory is the very _foundation_ of music! How do you expect to be able to play without knowledge of time signatures, scales, and musical ornaments?" the Brit lectured, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"Dude, chill," the American laughed, still as nonchalant as before.

"You'll never be able to properly perform any classic works! There's no way you'll ever become a famous musician like Yo-Yo Ma with that attitude," Arthur scoffed, turning up his nose slightly at Alfred.

"Classical stuff is kinda boring after a while. Jazz is totally awesome, though, and that's mainly improv. I don't wanna be like Yo-Yo Ma, anyways. I mean, he's okay, but he's got nothin' on Louis Armstrong!" he replied, giving Arthur another million-watt smile.

"Wha - ? Improvisation is just for people who fiddle around with their instruments. _Real_ musicians actually play written music," the Brit retorted angrily.

"Well, what about that one British dude? Ya know, that one bass guitar player and singer? Paul Mc-something?" the blue eyed teen asked, scratching his head at his current lack of memory. "He learned by playing by ear, didn't he?"

"T-that's different, you wanker!" the green eyed boy sputtered, turning his back to the American and beginning to walk again. "Hurry up; we're going to be late."

Alfred grinned brightly again, before following the blushing Brit, laughing off Arthur's obvious attempt at changing the subject.

The bell rang.

* * *

><p>Matthias Køhler plunked himself down into a chair at the back of the classroom just as the bell rang, beaming brightly at the Norwegian boy seated next to him.<p>

"…Three more seconds and you would have been late," Erik Haugen deadpanned, not looking up from his textbook. (He looked like he was working, but if you actually took the time to look at the blonde you'd soon realize that he was merely doodling trolls and fairies in the book's margins.)

"Yep!" the Dane replied, bright and chipper. "I'm a whole three seconds _early_ today! Great, right Norge?"

Erik twitched at the affectionate nickname and looked up from his work (doodles) to glare at the boy sitting next to him. "But I suppose it would be too much to ask for you to do your homework," he continued, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, I actually did do it today!" the spiky haired boy pouted, reaching into his backpack to pull out a rather crumpled piece of lined paper. "See! Ye of little faith."

"You still have four days left," the Norwegian replied, going back to his doodles.

"Four days before _we_ go and see the opening premiere of that new horror movie!" Matthias said, stressing the "we", smiling brightly again.

"No, four days before _you_ go to see the movie premiere and I _maybe_ go with you, depending on whether you are able to go a week straight without being late to Italian class or forgetting to do your homework," the shorter blonde corrected, finishing off a picture of a golden ring next to troll and proceeding to color it in with a bright golden highlighter.

"Come on, Norge – " Matthias whined, giving the Norwegian boy his best puppy dog eyes.

"I thought that we agreed that if you lost you'd stop calling me that," Erik said, completely unfazed.

"_If_ I lose, which I haven't," the Dane retorted.

"Yet," the shorter blonde tacked on.

The spiky haired boy was about to reply, but was cut off by their Italian teacher who told them to be quiet and listen.

The remainder of the period was spent either doodling and ignoring the other (Erik) or bothering the other for attention (Matthias). After the bell rang, they both packed up their papers and textbooks and headed out the doors of the classroom.

"Hey, where're you going, Norge?" the Dane asked as Erik headed left down the hallway. "You signed up for composition as your elective, didn't you? You're going the wrong way."

"You go to class; I'll be there in a sec," the Norwegian called back over his shoulder. "I just want to check up on Ari."

"Your brother?" Matthias asked, catching up to Erik. "I thought he said he didn't want to come here."

"He changed his mind," the violet eyed boy answered. "His application was last minute, but he was accepted."

"Why'd he change his mind?" the Dane asked curiously, walking just behind Erik in the sort of reading-over-your-shoulder sort of way which he knew annoyed the Norwegian immensely.

"He said something about wanting to go further with the viola," the shorter blonde replied, swatting at Matthias with his hand and forcing the taller teen to walk right next to him as opposed to the half in front-half behind gait he'd adopted before.

"There he is!" the Dane exclaimed as a head of silver colored hair came into view. "Hey, Ari!"

Said silver haired boy paused and waited for the pair of older students to catch up with him, giving them a quiet greeting.

"This is going to be a great year, isn't it?" the spiky haired boy grinned, grabbing Erik's wrist in one hand and Ari's in the other.

"For you, maybe," the shorter blonde muttered, despite the brief smile that flickered over his lips.

* * *

><p>Feliciano Vargas hummed softly to himself as he skipped down the linoleum hallways of Hetalia Academy. He was looking forward to painting, his elective; he'd always found it to be calming, but not quite as much as playing his violin, of course.<p>

He continued onwards, but then stopped halfway through the hallway that contained the majority of the practice rooms as he heard a sweet fluttering pitch seeping through the door on his right. The Italian violinist just stood there and listened for a few moments as the player finished their piece.

The brown haired boy poked his head into the room once the mysterious sounding music had stopped to find a short boy with black hair and large dark eyes on the inside, holding a strange looking piece of bamboo like one would a recorder or clarinet.

"Veee~! That sounded really pretty!" he exclaimed, startling the other boy.

"Ah!" the teen exclaimed, turning around quickly to look at Feliciano, blushing brightly. "I-I was not expecting someone – "

"Oh, sorry for scaring you," the Italian replied, smiling brightly. "It sounded very good, though. What sort of instrument is that?"

"A Shakuhachi," he answered softly, blushing a darker shade of pink than before. "It's a type of flute from my homeland, Japan."

"Oh, I guess you're not in the Orchestra, then," Feli said, deflating slightly.

"Ah, I play the Western flute, too," the Japanese teen added, in a sort of attempt to console the discouraged Italian.

"Veee~! That's great! I play the violin," he replied, perking right back up, startling the black haired boy again at how quickly his emotions seemed to change. "I'm Feliciano Vargas! Nice to meet you!"

"Ah, arigatou gozaimasu. I am Kiku Honda; it is wonderful to make your acquaintance," the Japanese teen replied, a small smile gracing his face.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Notes:<strong>_

_**Scale: **__A sequence of notes, either ascending or descending in pitch._

_**Major Scale:**__ A scale moving from one octave to another (so, say, a low C to a high C) moving up in the sequence whole step – whole step – half step – whole step – whole step – whole step – half step (by note), and then back down again. Wood wind instruments can typically play up to two octaves in a scale, while strings can play three. Each major scale has a different number or sharps or flats in their key signature and start on a different note. If you've ever heard "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti (Si), Do", that's going up on a single octave major scale. _

_**Minor Scale (Natural):**__ A scale which is two steps lower than its major. There's one for each major scale – they both have the same key signature (number of flats and sharps), though._

_**Melodic Minor Scale:**__ The major scale's natural minor scale, but with its seventh note raised a half step (which stays raised on the way back down the scale). _

_**Harmonic Minor Scale:**__ The major scale's natural minor scale, but with its sixth _and_ seventh notes raised on the way up the scale, but _not_ on the way back down the scale. _

_**Time Signature: **__The fraction at the beginning of the line which tells you how many beats there are per measure (a measure being a basic division of notes – they have a black line cutting through the staff at their beginning and another one at the end, signifying the finish of the measure). Common time is the most used time signature (4/4). The first four tells you that there are four beats per measure and the second four tells you that the quarter note gets the beat (as opposed to a half note or an eighth note – half note being longer than a quarter and eighth being shorter)._

_**Musical Ornaments: **__Small "flourishes" that serve to decorate a central note. They are often faster than the central note. Some examples are trills (a rapid, repeated alternation between the central note and the note above it), mordents (a rapid alternation between the central note and the note either above or below as indicated), turns or "gruppettos" (a rapid alternation between the central note, the note above, the central note again, the note below, and then the central note again), appoggiaturas or "long grace notes" (a note that is connected to another note and takes away an indicated time value of that note), acciaccaturas or "short appoggiaturas" (basically a shorter appoggiatura), and glissandos (a slide from one note to another, hitting all the notes in between). _

_**Yo-Yo Ma: **__A French-born, American cellist of Chinese descent. One of the most famous cellists – and musicians – today. He's also an orchestral composer, and plays the piano, viola, and violin. He's won multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also played in a quartet at the inauguration ceremony of US President Barak Obama. _

_**Jazz Improv/Improvisation:**__ Er, exactly what it sounds like. A jazz player creates a solo on the spot, sometimes a variation of the piece's main theme. _

_**Louis Armstrong: **__An American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans (1901-1971). Nicknamed "Satchmo" and "Pops", he was a foundational influence on jazz music, shifting jazz's focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. He's also known for his deep, gravelly singing voice, with which he also influenced jazz singing, often bending the lyrics and/or melody to create a more expressive tone. He was also a scat singer (when you use sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics). He is probably one of the most influential musicians (in America, if not in general), and had a profound effect on the formation of modern music. He was also one of the first African American musicians whose skin color was regarded as secondary to his amazing musical talent in a time period where America was drastically racially divided. _

_**Paul McCartney:**__ A British bass guitarist, singer and songwriter, and a member of the Beatles. He's also the most commercially successful songwriter in the whole history of popular music. He had sixty gold discs and one hundred _million_ singles in the UK. He's also one of the wealthiest people in the UK, and did, in fact, learn music by ear, and never paid much attention to his music lessons. He was heavily influenced by American "Rhythm and Blues", a form of jazz-based music._

(…I seriously don't mean to be so patriotic with Yo-Yo Ma, Louis Armstrong, and then the influence of American music on Paul McCartney…)

_**Recorder:**__ Also known as the "English flute", it's a whistle-like instrument held like a clarinet or oboe with seven holes that are covered by the player's fingers. They're typically made of wood, but are now also made of plastic._

_**Shakuhachi: **__A Japanese, end-blown flute, which looks rather like a bamboo recorder. They were originally used by Zen monks for meditation. While it is traditionally made of bamboo, it can also be made of wood or other synthetic materials. _

_**Chamber Music/Ensemble:**__ Classical music played by a small group of instruments, but always more than one – most typically four people, a quartet. There can be many different combinations of instrument ensembles, from all of the same instrument, to one of various types of instrument._

_(Also, if you look up Chamber Music on Wikipedia, the first picture in the article is of Prussia's Old Fritz playing the flute in an ensemble.) _

* * *

><p><strong>Translations: <strong>

(Japanese)

"Arigatou gozaimasu" - Thank you (semi-formal to formal)

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Er…wow. Lots of notes on musical terms. Sorry 'bout that…Well, thanks for reading and please review! BTW, here's a draft of **Arthur's schedule**:

8:00 – 8:45: Italian (Language)

8:45 – 9:30: Music Theory/Chamber Ensemble (switch: every other day)

9:30 – 10:15: Practice Hour/Private Lesson (lessons on Tuesdays)

10:15 – 11:00: Elective (haven't decided yet…)

11:00 – 11:45: Lunch

11:45 – 12:30: Orchestra

12:30 – 1:15: Orchestra

1:15 – 2:00: Math

2:00 – 2:45: History/English (Lit) (switch: every other day)

2:45 – 3:30: Science

3:30 – 4:15: Student Orchestra

4:15 – 5:00: Student Orchestra

Ummm…yeah. He's taking Italian because most music notation is in Italian (but occasionally French, because French composers apparently like their language a lot). Lastly, if there are any characters you're dying to hear a bit about, tell me, please – I'd be glad to try and include them next!

p.s.

I know that the schedule is kind of long for a normal school day, but this isn't exactly a normal school. If you think it's weird that they have about four and a half hours of practice every day, then you should probably know that while I was at Interlochen Arts Academy's summer camp studying flute, we were required to practice at least three hours a day. Also, apparently for professional solo musicians, they practiced for about 10,000 hours in their years from 1st grade – high school. That would be about 2.3 hours per day, every day. So yeah. That's Arthur's wacky schedule.

p.p.s.

Concert tomorrow! Wish me luck! (Although, hopefully I won't need luck.)


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